Curated OER
Get Physically Active
Students discover the importance of water. In this physical education science instructional activity, students consider mental and physical activities. Students find their pulse and measure their heart rate. Students discuss the...
Teach Engineering
Exploring the Forces of Tension
Let the resource stretch the minds of your young scientists with a lesson about tensile strength and stiffness of materials. Groups consider how easily materials stretch and relate this property to engineering design.
Curated OER
Summer Activities: Our Amazing Bodies
Students use the body as a sensory laboratory to explore their five senses, heartbeat, bones, and even size. In this early childhood science lesson, students build science and critical thinking skills as they take part in up to 6...
Captain Planet Foundation
Solar Cooking Race
Study heat transfer with activities that focus on how heat energy works. Using a solar cooker, ice cubes, and heat transfer bracelets, kids experiment and record what they find by keeping ice cubes cold and vegetables hot.
Curated OER
Simple Tensile Testing of Polymeric Films and Sheeting
Chemistry classes pretend to be consultants to a grocery story trying to decide what polymer to use for therir new non-paper bags. They prepare tensile bars and use them to test plastic film samples for strength and stretchability. Both...
Cornell University
The Physics of Bridges
Stability is key when building a bridge. Scholars explore the forces acting upon bridges through an analysis of Newton's Laws and Hooke's Law. The activity asks individuals to apply their learning by building a bridge of their own.
Berkshire Museum
Meet a Naturalist: Researching, Writing, Interviewing
Young scholars reach out into the community and learn about different environmental science careers in this inquiry-based instructional activity. Beginning with a short research assignment, children gain background knowledge about...
Alliance Theater
The Jungle Book Post-Show STEAM Lesson
An ecosystem is really just the flow of energy through many different living organisms. A study of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book leads to an environmental science activity in which learners study how various factors can affect...
Curated OER
Will it Stretch?
Students explore elasticity and describe the effects of temperature changes on physical properties. In this rubber band stretch lesson students complete an experimental activity and show their results.
Curated OER
Be a "Peder-Reader" - A Discovery Activity
Young scholars investigate millipedes. In this math and physics lesson plan, students examine the millipede's physical structure and characteristics by observing its behavior in given activities. Pupils will hypothesize whether they...
Curated OER
Rocket Activity
Students explore Newton's Second Law of Motion. In this rocket activity lesson, students experiment with Newton's Second Law of Motion as they use a slingshot device to force a car to move.
Carnegie Mellon University
Natural Gas and Pennsylvania’s Future
Beginning with a general discussion about natural gas, methane, and hydrocarbons, a few videos and diagrams are projected to support the lecture. Individuals participate in a brief activity by drinking juice through a straw, and then...
Discovery Education
Sonar & Echolocation
A well-designed, comprehensive, and attractive slide show supports direct instruction on how sonar and echolocation work. Contained within the slides are links to interactive websites and instructions for using apps on a mobile device to...
Curated OER
Not Everyone Lived in Castles During the Middle Ages
Students complete a variety of online activities surrounding their study of the Middle Ages. They focus on the various levels of the class sytem and then role play a member of a given class.
Curated OER
The Mighty Hudson Stretches its Mussels
Students brainstorm possible causes of zebra mussel migration and population expansion. They identify the key causes and effects of the disturbance of the Hudson River ecosystem and research causes and effects in the disturbances of...
Curated OER
The Photoelectric Effect in Photocells
Illuminate your physics class with this examination of a photovoltaic cell. Teach the structure and operation of the device using a diagram. Then make a human-powered, larger-than-life sized model of a PV cell. Learners become electrons...
Space Science Institute
The "All American" Eclipse Guide
Are you ready for the biggest astronomical event of the year? More importantly ... are you ready to share it with your scholars? Use a presentation filled with facts and diagrams to make sure everyone in class understands the importance...
NOAA
Biological Oceanographic Investigations – Call to Arms
How many simple machines does it take to make a robotic arm? An inquiry-based activity explores that topic and challenges pupils to build a robotic arm that can stretch, turn, and more. A few questions help guide them in the right...
Curated OER
Elastic Recoil in Arteries and Veins
A lab in which high schoolers examine the difference between arteries and veins. Budding biologists will find out which blood vessel can stretch furthest, recording their data in a table then answering several questions evaluating their...
Curated OER
How Are Stars Like People?
A beautifully written lesson plan delves into a beautiful topic: stellar population. Engage aspiring astronomers with activities that examine human populations and then transition onto the stars of the universe. Data and photographs for...
Curated OER
Dancing Flamingos
Students perform a number of activities that mimic flamingo actions and displays. The class discusses why animals behave in certain ways, and how behavioral adaptations help animals to survive.
LABScI
The Digestive System: Where Does Food Go?
Would you believe that your digestive system stretches to five times your height?! Help your pupils to understand this relationship as they work through the laboratory exercise. The first instructional activity of a 12-part series is a...
Polar Trec
Playground Profiling—Topographic Profile Mapping
The Kuril islands stretch from Japan to Russia, and the ongoing dispute about their jurisdiction prevents many scientific research studies. Scholars learn to create a topographic profile of a specific area around their schools. Then they...
Curated OER
Elastomers: The Best Bungee Cord
Students examine elastomeric polymers in a lab activity in which they design a bungee cord. Students must determine the tensile strength, percent elongation, and plot stress versus strain graphs for their experiments on rubber bands...